It Ain't Right
by Ptraci
Summary: Jayne is looking for some relaxation planet-side.
1. Chapter 1

Jayne pushed his way into the bar, ready for some action. Sexin' or brawlin', he didn't really care which. As he made his way through the common room, he looked every single person there in the eye, making sure they knew just who the big man in the room was. He bellied up to the bar and caught the bartender's attention.

"I'll have your finest whiskey and your best whore." As he spoke, he tipped a pouch of coins onto the counter.

The bartender poured him a whiskey and made some of the coins disappear behind the bar. "Well sir, that's our finest whiskey by far, good as you'll find on the Rim. As for our best whore, she's a mite particular and you'll have to ask her yourself. Lena, you have a customer." He beckoned to a buxom blonde with all the right curves and lips the colour of a juicy strawberry. Jayne's pants started to get a little tight just thinking about what those lips could do to him.

Lena looked Jayne in the eye as she glided over to him, stopping only millimetres shy of pressed up against him. The tall woman still had to crane her neck to maintain eye contact from that close. "Oh, you're a shuai one, aren't you?" She swept her gaze over his body. "We could definitely work something out, handsome. You talk to Mr. Burgess here and he'll set you on the path to nirvana." She started to turn away, but Jayne grabbed her arm.

"Whaddya mean?" he said gruffly. "I put my cash down already, dong ma? I'm ready now, and I ain't got all day."

She put her hand on his chest gently. "Sir, you smell like you've been in the black for weeks, showering in recycled water and getting none to clean doing so. I may be a whore, but I choose my customers and you need a bath before you get any closer. It just so happens we have some luxurious baths available, so if you go for a soak I will come and get you when I think you've had long enough to wash the space stink of that lovely body of yours. If that's not acceptable, there are other ladies here that will help you - but none as well as I would." With that she licked her lips slowly, and walked away.

"Ai ya. Mr. Burgess? Where's this bath? Be quick."

* * *

Jayne soaked thoughtfully in the warm scented water. He would never tell anyone on Serenity, but this was kind of nice, smoking a cigar in a hot bath, cleaning off the grime that never quite comes off in recycled water. He put the cigar in the ashtray and sank in the water, just enjoying the warmth all around him. When he came up and wiped the water out of his eyes, he looked over at the next tub and yelled. "Crazy, what in the ruttin' hell are you doing in here? I'm having a bath gorramit!"

River looked at him quizzically. "She is preparing for a bath as well. The stench is too much, it makes her... less sane." She started to lift her dress over her head, and Jayne turned his head away so fast he almost got whiplash.

"Moonbrain, I know you're not doin' what I think you are. Cap'n would space me just for bein' the same room with you naked. 'Sides, it's not right for a girl to have a bath in the same room as a man! 'Specially not a crazy little girl like you!" He started to turn back and caught a glimpse of her from the corner of his eye as she stepped into the bath, making him turn away again even faster. He sat there stunned for a moment, just thinking "So pale and smooth..."

"She doesn't get much sun always on the ship. Of course she's pale ape-man."

"That's it. It ain't right." Raising his voice, he yelled "Mr. Burgess!"

A plain woman entered the room and said "Mr. Burgess won't come in while there's a lady bathing. How can I help you Mr. Cobb?"

"For starters, you can get the 'lady' to stop bathin' while I'm in here – it ain't right!"

"I'm sorry sir, that's not possible. We only have one bathing room, and she is a paying customer as well."

Jayne started to sputter incoherently about putting girls and men in the same bathing room, but the attendant cut him off.

"When you are ready to get out, I can return and hold up a sheet to protect your modesty sir." With that, she left, leaving the two of them alone again.

River looked at Jayne with a small smile. "He can finally prove that even though he has a girl's name, he has man-parts." She bent her head forward and giggled, her hair forming a brown curtain between them. Jayne just growled as he grabbed his cigar and puffed angrily on it.

"That's it crazy, you need to get out. Now."

"She can't get out until the stink of space is gone. Otherwise the beautiful man she has paid for won't share affection with her."

Jayne's mouth dropped open and the cigar landed in the water, hissing.

"The beautiful what won't what?" He forgot himself and stared at her.

"She has money. She requires companionship. She gets so ... lonely in the black. Hears everyone's thoughts. Feels what they're doing..." She slid beneath the water and sat back up, soaking wet hair clinging to her shoulders and back. "She is tired of always being ... alone."

Jayne watched speechless as she started to wash her hair, piling it all on her head. The sides of the tub were high, but he could still see the creamy skin of her shoulders and back as she lathered her hair. Forgetting himself, he watched the muscles of her back move. After Miranda, he saw differently. Now he could see the hard strength that was hidden beneath her surface, the warrior woman that could decimate an enemy but still be soft and inviting...

"He thinks of her as a woman? Not a child?" Her voice was filled with wonder and something else, something making her sound husky and vulnerable all at once.

Jayne winced and looked away from her. "No, no he does *not* think of her as a woman. Crazy girl. What in the ruttin' hell do you think you're doin'? You don't want a boy-whore. He won't treatcha right." Without meaning to, he glanced at her again and thought, "Not like I could."

River sank into the water again and cleaned the soap from her hair, then stood straight up in the bath with her back to him and ladled cold water over herself to clean off the residue of the bath water. Jayne watched her, and something in him snapped. He got out of his bath and strode over to her. She turned to him as he drew near, and he lifted her out of the tub, bruising her with the strength of his grip. He carried her over to the wall and set her down leaning against it with one arm around her and the other lifting her chin.

He bent down and kissed her, long and slow. It felt so natural that he didn't even question what he was doing - he knew she didn't have the poisoned kiss of a whore. As his tongue darted into her mouth, plundering her with the intensity of the kiss, he reached down with his other hand and stroked the core of her. She was wet, and it was more than just bath water. She gasped into his mouth and ground against his hand and he couldn't hold back.

He lifted her and pinned her against the wall with his body, her legs wrapping around his waist, opening herself to him. Never stopping the kiss, he slid his hand up her body to her smooth, creamy breast, cupping it gently then tweaking the nipple. He lifted her a little and lined them up and before either of them knew it, he was buried completely inside her, feeling her hot wetness around him, almost burning him with the intensity of her passion. She stopped kissing him, falling completely still for a moment.

"River, I didn't hurt ya did I?" He started to worry, but she looked up at him with eyes black with desire. She lifted her arms around his neck shifted her body slightly. He groaned, almost unable to hold back. She gazed at him steadily and whispered, "Don't hold back." He moaned her name and held her against the wall while he started to move in earnest, sliding almost all the way out of her before slamming back in, over and over again. She started to wail about the same time he thought he couldn't take anymore. He held on for just a few moments more and she shrieked, screaming his name and writhing between him and the wall. It was too much for him and he exploded inside her heat, almost passing out from the intensity.

Spent, his knees too weak to stand, he picked her up and took her back to the bathtub, laying her in it and crawling in after her. When the attendant returned to see what was going on, they were both asleep, curled around each other and grinning. She backed out of the room and counted the cash the girl had given her to say there was only one room.


	2. Chapter 2

She looked out the window at the stars scattered through the black. They reminded her of the snow falling outside her bedroom window when she was a little girl. Silent and beautiful, always there but not really a part of anything. Just like her.

* * *

Jayne wandered into the bridge, hoping for some alone time with the Cortex. He turned the pilot's chair to drop into it, and was surprised to find River sitting there, all curled up as small as could be.

"Ai ya! Whaddya doing hidin' in here?" He sat down in the co-pilot's station and looked at River. She had silent tears coursing down her cheeks and she was staring past him to the stars outside. He started to get uncomfortable and stood again. "I guess you ah, what ta be alone. I'll just..."

"She is solitary. She is no more part of the crew than those departed. She is wrapped in isolation, no one can intrude, no one wants to know. They are frightened. They are grieving. They have no room in their hearts for her now that she is no longer a girl but a weapon." The words fell from River in a monotone torrent, never adding expression to her face. Jayne ran his hand through his short unkempt hair and tried to say something comforting.

"She doesn't want comforting. She wants her life back. All the voices that fill her head, it's hard to find the one that's hers. All the feelings flood her body, but she is only a reflection of those around her. Is she here? Or just a mirror, a figment, a phantasm? Why don't they *see* her?" She turned and looked at Jayne with her big watery eyes, hair falling as a shield between them. "Jayne saw her. He made her have feelings that were hers alone, thoughts that belonged to no one else before her. Why has he avoided her? He thinks on her often. He remembers..."

Jayne sat down again suddenly, as if the air had been knocked out of him. "River-girl, I'm sorry, I shouldn'ta done that to ya. Back in that bar ... it were wrong, all sortsa wrong, an' it can't ever be right." He remembered the way she felt, the sounds that she made, the amazing smell of her that filled his dreams.

River got up slowly and walked over to him like she was approaching a wild horse that she didn't want to spook. "Wrong and right are immaterial. Concepts that were in the bits removed from her. Ideas that belong in a different world. In this world many things are more important. Exhilaration. Gratification. Companionship. She felt these for a shining moment, but they are gone now. Gone away because he won't even look at her now." She stopped inches away from him, unsure of how to reach for him without causing his retreat.

He sat stock still for a moment, then something in him broke. He reached for her and pulled her through the last of the distance between them. "I'm lookin' at ya now 'n I don't want ta stop." He wrapped his arms around her and bundled her into his lap, surrounding her with his warmth. She melted into him and sighed, reaching up to put her arms around his neck. They sat together, motionless, staring into the stars together.

"She isn't alone now."

"No, she won't be ever again."

He kissed the top of her head, and held her even closer.

* * *

Neither of them noticed when Inara entered the bridge and left quietly. She closed the door behind her as silently as she could, a small smile lighting her face. As she walked away, she ran into Mal heading for the bridge and distracted him from his destination. She knew that River and Jayne needed time to figure out what was happening before having to justify it to anyone else.


End file.
